Blue Squares on the Long Weekend

I'm helping my friend Nomes decorate her room. We're going for a beach theme with pretty touches of pink. I grabbed some images from around the web and assembled them as inspiration:
(Click to expand)

Over the Australia Day weekend, there were a lot of barbecues, glasses of wine, escapades in St Kilda, countdowns to Triple J's Hottest 100 and a tipsy midnight sing-a-long in the street with my friend Chris to a neighbour's acoustic rendition of 'Sex on Fire'. There were also a few little painting projects for Nomesy's room.

Me trying to see if I could take pretty pics without the aid of the SLR

(I didn't have my camera over the long weekend. Ack! I felt naked!)

The resulting blue squares (taken with SLR/Kenny the Camera)

I really enjoy painting. I have no idea what I'm doing and therefore don't feel constrained by any rules. I'm blissfully unaware of the 'right' way to do things, so there's no pressure and I just kind of figure it out as I go. This is different to my filmmaking process for instance, where I put more pressure on myself as I know what can go wrong, won't look good and what I consider the best way to do things for the most polished result.

So much of what I do professionally is virtual and digital; it feels good to do something so tactile and messy. The results are immediate as well. With film and photography, there's a lot of excitement in running back to your computer to upload your work and see how it turned out. It's like that feeling of anticipation you got when you were little and waiting to unwrap your birthday presents.

Anyhoo, I'm happy with how the blue squares turned out. I was going for an ocean effect without being too literal. (I'm aware that 'literal' probably isn't the best word to use to apply to something visual, but it's the only one I can think of at present that captures what I mean!) I went from a deep, dark blue at the top of the six square canvases and got lighter as I progressed down, finishing with a light, almost white blue.

Mood: Bon Iver and wanting to see Russell Brand's stand-up when he's in town